Way back in the early 1970s, just before the New Wave of British Heavy Metal came along, Glam Rock was king. Slade were at the forefront of that along with the likes of the Sweet, T.Rex, Roxy Music et al.
For me, Slade ruled the roost make no mistake. Hugely successful, massively influential and for all the monster hit singles they were quite the heavy metal band with much more to them than all those, er, questionably spelt, song titles.
Every English teacher must have shuddered in horror when trying to teach his young charges the finer points of proper grammar when Noddy Holder and Jimmy Lea were writing songs such as Skweeze Me, Please Me, Com On Feel the Noize, Take Me Bak ‘Ome and Mama Weer All Crazee Now.
All massive hit singles along with many, many others. Incredibly catchy each with a huge anthemic, shout-along chorus and some nice riffing too. Slade ruled the charts in the early 1970s for a good few years and even when the hits dried up they remained a band capable to cranking out excellent rockers and singles.
Then their career got an unexpected shot in the arm when they were on the bill at the 1980 Reading festival and the 1981 Monster of Rock festival at Castle Donnington.
Now we can all enjoy what a phenomenal act Slade were with this double CD collection of 43 of their singles – including the perennial festive time Merry Xmas Everybody (please don’t tell me you’ve never heard it).
Slade had it all. The look (Noddy’s mirror hat for example), Dave Hill’s questionable dress sense, Jimmy Lea throbbing on the bass an super-solid drumming from Don Powell, the song writing tuned in to the times and the ability to “rock” too.
Here’s one of those massive hits – Mama Weer All Crazee Now:
https://youtu.be/RPTk5poAa1c
This remarkable double-CD contains the band’s singles through to 1991 including those six No.1s and a huge 16 which made the top 10 in the UK.
And they proved they still very much had “it” after those aforementioned festival appearances with hits such as Run Runaway and Radio Wall of Sound.
Iconic is a much overly used word, though it certainly apples to Slade.
Whether you remember the band from the 1970s glory years like I do or want to hear what all the fuss was about and what a great band they were – this monster double CD is an essential purchase. You’d be, er, craze not to buy it!
>> GET YOUR COPY HERE FROM AMAZON <<
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